The gun grabbing tactics used in Argentina are similar in many ways to those used in USA. Namely a very strong anti-gun media campaign, on all levels. In Argentina the slogan shoved down people’s throat was “if you have a gun, you have a problem”. It was pretty effective too, catchy. My wife used to make fun of me whenever we saw it on TV, “You heard that? We have a lot of problems!” We already had mandatory gun registration (try to avoid having that in USA!) and people were harassed regarding how many guns they had and the conditions they were stored in. The anti-gun campaign was strongly supported by so called NGOs that sympathized with the government and were funded by them.

In the last years the controls for getting a firearm license and renewing it had increased considerably. The psychological test was increasingly difficult and without an explanation a lot of people were failing it, in some cases people I knew pretty well and clearly didn’t have any condition that should stop them from owning guns.

This is where the tyranny of “experts” comes into play. They make a new set of rules that there is no way to pass, then the authoritarian tyrants simply take every means of resistance away. The state declares the desire to own a gun an indicator of mental illness, and suddenly you can’t own one (not to sound like Tom Cruise with regards to shrinks, but remember that homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in the DSM-II until 1974). Calling your opponents crazy is a common tactic. Very self-serving, very tyrannical, very effective.

To the low-information citizen, the government’s accusations of anyone who desires resistance to government as being a wacko completely obfuscates the facts and changes an incident to a “narrative” – that is, a story that the government tells. If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’ve already seen some massive examples of government telling a story that doesn’t jive with the facts, but that creates a popular perception among the uninformed – Fast and Furious and Benghazi are just the two most recent examples.

NICO (WHO LIVES IN ARGENTINA) LEFT A VERY IMPORTANT COMMENT. I THINK IT IS LIKELY WE WILL SEE THIS HAPPEN WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR:

Starting to sound a lot like Argentina. Here though the government can force you to keep your company running since shutting it down could land you in prison.

People here say the government doesn’t understand how business works. I am sure they do. But they also understand how to REDISTRIBUTE wealth. Unions are the best way to do that. Unions have the power to bankrupt a company (and they do), but here the government has the power to force the company to remain open to every last dime that the evil rich guy had gets distributed!

For those who missed what happened in Argentina, here’s the short version. In the 90s and into the 2000s, Argentina was hurting. The socialists in power decided to mess with the currency. Inflation and loss of value of the Argentine dollar followed, and pretty soon those who had money had lost it. Those who had lots of money never felt it, and gave handouts to the newly poor, making them dependent on government.

Years ago there was a poster on The High Road (which used to be Oleg Volk’s forum, but that’s another story) named FerFal, an architecture student from Argentina. He wrote a long series of Q&As on how to be a modern survivalist. Really good, really interesting stuff. The original posts can still be found and are full of good info, but he also went on to write his own blog, and a book – “Surviving the Economic Collapse” (under his name, Fernando Aguirre).

I read a lot of his posts a long time ago, and now I’m probably going to get the book. It’s not the kind of thing I want to think about as actively happening. I’d like to engage in the normalcy bias and just assume the USA will go on being the USA, but with all the changes in the last few years, it’s something that can’t really be denied as a possibility. From the criminal actions of the current government in Fast and Furious to the coverup of Benghazi to Quantitative Easing 1, 2, and ad infinitum, things are changing.

I suggest reading some of FerFal’s posts at his blog. A couple of fairly recent excerpts, just to give you an idea:

Some of the events I’ve written about have been hard to digest. Even though I’m firmly against the doom and gloom fascination so common in the survival and preparedness world, there’s times when you just have to tell it as it is. You can’t disguise the death of a person you know, or relate incidents of crime and violence looking through pink-shaded glasses because one extreme is just as bad as the other. The nature of the topics discussed here are serious, sometimes matters of life and death, so that’s why to a certain nouvel readership it might seem dark to read. Even with a pragmatic eye and objective point of view none of this reads like a walk in the park.

As I write this, I can’t avoid feeling two very clear sensations. The first one I can only explain by saying that it’s like stepping out of a boat just as it finishes its slow, decadent sinking and finally goes under the surface. The second one is genuine sadness. Of all the posts I’ve written, this is without a doubt the saddest one I’ve written. I’m not talking about the loss of culture, standards of living or the death of a friend. Its not about the starvation of children of violence towards people close to me. It’s about all that and more. It’s about the death of a country itself.

As the press all over the world talks about the political success of the current administration, and mentions the “flourishing”, prosperous Argentina, a clear minority which I’m part of sees things differently. It makes you wonder and ask yourself a few other things as well. Who writes all these praises? What kind of data do they use to make such positive statements? How can a country be booming economically, yet keeps having shantytowns grow at an accelerating rate, poverty, misery and decadence never backing down one inch, and the 3rd greatest inflation in the planet as the icing on the cake? After reading some of the emails people sent me on the “success” of Argentina, I wonder if its just innocent stupidity, lack of professionalism or if there’s more to it than meets the eye and there are other intentions behind it.

Argentina was fatally wounded almost ten years ago and Argentina as I knew it died yesterday, October 23, 2011, when Ms. Kirchner was re-elected with over 50% of the votes, gaining complete control of the country. She now controls the executive of course, but also the congress, unions and even the media through the Kirchner Media Law. The headlines of the world consider this something of a surprise, a small number of Argentines such as myself consider this the culmination of a decade long process that started with the destruction of opposing parties by any means, legal or not, the indoctrination of the generations to come through several channels including the mandatory “Citizen Formation Studies” in schools and even an officially approved version of history. It seems insane, but the “History” I was taught twenty years ago is different from the one my son is taught, much worse, its different from the recent history I SAW with my own eyes.

One can only wonder how can such an authoritarian leader earn so much public support? Wasn’t it bad enough when they controlled the media through an unconstitutional law, or what about our retirement funds begin stolen (nationalized) right in our faces?

A recent hearing sponsored by the Treasury and Labor Departments marked the beginning of the Obama Administration’s effort to nationalize the nation’s pension system and to eliminate private retirement accounts including IRA’s and 401k plans, NSC is warning.

… The name 8N is in reference to 7D, next December 7th, the day the government is supposed to take over the Clarín Media group which is the last bastion of free speech in Argentina. This is possible thanks to a recent media law called “Ley de Medios K” which the government swiftly approved so as to take over printed press, TV and radio.
Tonights 8N is a popular outcry against that, but also against the government not recognizing both the financial problems and most important, the crime problems that the K government refuses to admit. Most of my readers are well aware of this huge issue, and were often surprised not to see more reference to it from other sources. Tonights protest is an outcry to such censorship and denial of such an obvious problem that rips through the lives of Argentines each day.

This protest is a clear grass roots movement, organized by people that are simply fed up. Of course, politicians try to take advantage of the protest but due to popular request most politicians from opposing parties said that while they do support the claims of 8N, they will not go themselves or send people with flags so as to not pollute a legitimate popular claim. Unlike pro government “popular” rallies, these aren’t people that are paid to go protest and take the streets, these are mostly working class and middle class people that feel identified with what the protest stands for: Acceptance of the crime problem in Argentina, that the government acknowledges the true inflation instead of cooking the numbers, and that the government stops meddling with peoples business in terms of personal freedom and freedom of press. I’ll change channels if I don’t like watching one, you are not supposed to decide for me what I read, listen on the radio or watch on TV. Those that identify with these claims will have a chance to make themselves heard tonight. The protest is not only in Argentina, but also in other places where Argentines expats are living, most of us forced to live elsewhere because of the current situation in Argentina.

I don’t believe it will cause Cristina Kirchner to resign as president, even though she may want to after tonight. Most people are making it clear that they do NOT want her to resign, most just want her to listen and stop acting like a dictator (which she will not do, because that’s exactly what she is) but we learned the damage that kind of thing does to a democracy. I believe it might just stop her enough so as to not seek a change in the constitution for indefinite reelections. That alone will be enough. It may also give strength to other political sectors so that Argentina may have a true chance of finally rebuilding itself in the next elections. My American friends, take note. This could be you 1-4 years from now.